Newsletter

New Florida offensive coordinator Kurt Roper described as 'intense, up-tempo'

Roper coached Eli Manning at Ole Miss, was at Duke for six years

New Florida offensive coordinator Kurt Roper (third from the left) appears with other finalists for Broyles Award, honoring the nation's top college assistant coach.

For its third offensive coordinator in four years, the University of Florida turned to the ACC for a coach steeped in the SEC.

Kurt Roper, who has guided the Duke offense to record-breaking levels this season, was formally named the Gators offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on Thursday. He replaces Brent Pease, who lasted two seasons and fell on the sword for UF’s offensive ineptitude that resulted in the team’s worst record (4-8) since 1979.

Roper, 41, has worked for Duke coach David Cutcliffe for the last six seasons as the Blue Devils have gone from the ACC doormat to the Coastal Division champions. He will stay with the team through the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 31.

Duke (10-2) set a school record for the most touchdowns in one season (54) and averaged a school-record 31.6 points per game in reaching the ACC championship game. The Blue Devils also averaged, 234.4 yards passing, 173.7 yards rushing and 408.1 total yards per game.

Coach Will Muschamp, whose job may hinge on how much production Roper can shake out of the offense, fired Brent Pease the day after the final game of the season.

Roper has coached three quarterbacks who passed for 3,000 or more yards five times at Duke. By contrast, the Gators haven’t had a 3,000-yard passer since Tim Tebow in 2007, the season he won the Heisman Trophy.

Roper worked with Cutcliffe at Mississippi and Tennessee, and also has coached at Kentucky. Roper helped develop two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning at Ole Miss and at Duke coached two other NFL quarterbacks, Thaddeus Stevens and Sean Renfree. Roper coached 12 seasons in the SEC before going to Duke in 2008.

“The expectations [in the SEC] are high, and they should be,” Roper said on Thursday during a teleconference. “They’ve won a lot of games at Florida and won a lot of championships at Florida and obviously the expectations are going to be high ... anywhere in the SEC.”

Roper, who coached an up-tempo offense with the Blue Devils, said he’s not chained to a particular philosophy, other than to “play fast but play smart.”

“We want to get 11 people on the field, we want to get them lined up, we want to get them set with motion, we want to snap the ball before the play clock rubs out and we want the ball at the end of the play,” he said. “Coaching is not plays or formations ... it’s how to make decisions and how to play the game with effort.”

Cutcliffe said in a teleconference on Thursday that Gator offensive players will never have a wasted snap in practice under Roper.

“His style would be intensity, tempo and quality of repetition,” Cutcliffe said. “It’s going to be what we call ‘treat the ground like a hot stove.’ By the time they get on the field until they get off, they’re going to be moving and getting a bunch of qualify reps.”

Roper said his first two keys in revamping the offense will be quarterback and the line.

“The biggest thing is you’ve got to find out the strengths of your quarterback and the strengths of your offensive line,” he said. “Once you find those strengths then you can start putting together what you’re going to start handing your hat on offensively.”

Roper will start spring practice with Jeff Driskel as the quarterback and 10 underclass linemen. Part of the problem for the Gators is that Driskel broke his leg in the third game of the season against Tennessee and injuries depleted UF so much up front that the same five linemen started two games in a row only once.

Muschamp has secured verbal commitments from four offensive linemen, including a pair of four-star recruits, David Sharpe of Providence High School and Nolan Kelleher of Mount Pleasant, S.C. Will Grier, ranked second nationally by Rivals among high school quarterbacks, may be the only challenger for Driskel since Tyler Murphy, Driskel’s replacement, has transferred.

Roper said that Muschamp would be the one to hire a new offensive line coach but added the two of them are “going to be on the same page.”

Muschamp said in a statement that he values Roper’s belief in a balanced offense. Duke had 20 or more touchdowns running and passing this season for the first time in its history.

“He has a diverse, up-tempo background on offense and does a good job of adapting to what the players do best,” Muschamp said in a statement. “The important thing, though, is he has always remained balanced.”

Roper’s father Bobby was an assistant coach at Tennessee in the 1970s and Roper played quarterback at Rice.